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[Campaign] Secret Mini Bosses

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Level 6
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In the campaign, I am making I am adding at least one secret mini-boss in every map. I am looking for suggestions for these mini-bosses. I don't want them all as a simple hit the one guy and kill him thing. So far I have worked on the first two mini-bosses, one in the first map the other in the second. The first one is just a normal hit the boss thing with adds supporting the boss. However, on the second map, the boss is multiple enemies.

In the second map, you have a timer with summoners creating undead out of a pit of skeletons. They will cast spells on you and multiple enemies will come to aid them. Once the time runs out an army of undead with a unique boss that gives no rewards will attack your base and the summoners will disappear with there allies. The summoners also have nearby allies before the boss with a nearby hero that if not killed before the fight comes to support the summoners and gives small rewards. To get to the secret boss you have to discover an island with corpses and a couple of resurrected undead. Once you get to the end there appears to nothing until you go back to the start of the island and fight a couple of Naga. Once these are killed you can now access the secret island. What do you guys think about this mini-boss? Any suggestions for future mini bosses?
 
Level 11
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I have one miniboss in my game that has a life orb moving towards you.
Once the timer runs out, the orb will explode at the same damage as the current health of the miniboss. The miniboss has slow ability or cripple ability to reduce your DPS towards that orb. And yes, I still have much work to do on this boss than just concentrating on the orb. Well, maybe this will keep the ball rolling!
 
Level 5
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What do you guys think about this mini-boss?
Too complicated to unlock. If I understand the order correctly:

1. You need to find a hidden location
2. You need to progress to the end of the location
3. You need to go back to the start of the location and win a battle
4. You need to then go to another hidden location to actually fight the boss.
5. You need to do all this within a time limit, otherwise you have to fight another boss with no reward or beat a bosslike summoner group to buy more time.

It's an overcomplicated series of actions for a miniboss in a campaign mission, unless it's a Rexxar-like mission where you can be expected to sequence-break the order I've listed in some way, as you can come back after killing the summoners before the time limit, or find the island before you start the timer and clear it out.

Regarding further designs, I've mentioned some boss design based on positive feedback loops in abilities. The main example was a minion-creating boss that could sacrifice minions to recover, while the minions have buff abilities. A similar design with an optional-to-attack base that takes a role normally reserved for autospawner triggers could be used to have a strategic puzzle-box that rewards you with a permanent difficulty reduction for all later missions, as you've blown up the base producing some subset of units. The self-contained spawner-loop boss could reward an item that essentially invalidates their associated unit subset (such as rapid Dispel Magic for a buff-caster group) instead of removing it outright like destroying the interlocking-base-boss.
 
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My mistake forgot to mention that the timer doesn't start until after a small cutscene which is triggered by going right up to the summoners. The secret boss fight is connected by a spectral bridge that appears after you kill these guys and is located at the end of the island. The island is like a pathway where there is a couple of undead. Bosslike summoner group are also etheral also the first island isn't that secret its just a weird small landmass near the edge of the map that can be found easily by exploring.
 
Level 6
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I have one miniboss in my game that has a life orb moving towards you.
Once the timer runs out, the orb will explode at the same damage as the current health of the miniboss. The miniboss has slow ability or cripple ability to reduce your DPS towards that orb. And yes, I still have much work to do on this boss than just concentrating on the orb. Well, maybe this will keep the ball rolling!
For that I have an idea that you could give the orb a lifesteal towards the boss. You could also try to add some obstacles around the area that hinder your movement and perhaps after they explode it will change to either multiple still orbs or 1/2 moving orbs.
 
Level 5
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So, to list some general "kinds" of boss off the top of my head:

1. Unit-producing base utilizing custom structures to self-synergize into a defensive powerhouse, generally more practical to ignore.
2. Hero unit with death-punishing abilities that requires extreme force disparity to handle cleanly, otherwise becomes nigh-unstoppable.
3. Large summoner group that sends attack waves, utilizes revival, corpse-usage and/or sacrifice abilities for powerful effects.
4. AoE slow/stun abilities that cost large amounts of time to get through, large reduction in value of micromanagement and numbers.
5. Puzzle-army that requires using abilities to counteract some specific opening in a net of units, such as Dispel on a Summoned reviver.
 
Level 28
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^ 4.1: AoE abilities that can be dodged/interrupted.

Miniboss ideas:

Murloc Tidebringer
* Has a channeling ability that summons a big wave that does minor damage, but pushes his enemies away. Alternately, the arena contains pools of shallow water and the boss' spell causes the tides to rise and fall (rising water or water doodad), any units in the pools are immobilized until the water recedes (or drown instantly).

Ghost Pirate:
* Coins are found all around the arena, the pirate keeps respawning until all the coins are gathered. Alternately, the coins spawn each time he "dies" (for example, 5-10-15), and he only dies for good after the last one is picked up.
 
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Druids in d&d are notorious for being ironically the best bosses. First they throw summoned animals harassing you, all done on a hazardous terrain he create to impede your progress, before you reach the big bad king of animals at the center that upon defeating you discover that was not even his final form! It reverts back to humanoid form, this time flinging various nature based spells to you. And where you are about to strike the final blow, he steps into nearby tree, seemingly disappearing into nothing.
 
Level 19
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- A classic RPG boss with the main body plus one right arm and one left arm (or other similar adds) as separate entities that do powerful stuff on your face if you let them alive all at once for long enough. Arms may respawn or not
- A boss with "unlimited" health (like the max you can set in the editor) who only goes down after sustaining X amount of damage, so that the player doesn't know exactly at what point of the fight they are
- A slime boss that divides in two lesser versions upon dying, then both divide in two again, etc.
- A super resistant fire boss that you have to pull toward water poodles that appear during the fight in order to weaken its armor
- A dragon boss with a ground phase and air phase

I'd suggest you have a look at some WoW encounters for a couple ideas.
 
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Sand Worm:
* The worm can bury underground, becoming invisible and attacking a few times before surfacing. When he buries, using a ground-affecting spell (Thunder Clap, Shockwave, etc.) stuns/dizzies the boss and forces him to the surface.

Golem Sentries:
* The permanent corpses of several golems lie around the arena, each one resurrecting after the other. Bombs can be placed on a golem corpse so it has only half HP when it revives, but there are less bombs than there are golems. Choose... wisely.
 
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Shell Game Boss:
* Every time the boss' HP drops by 25%, it hides under one of three identical rocks. Attacking any of the rocks will cause the boss to reappear, but if the wrong one is attacked, every unit in the arena gets a minor debuff (Cursed/Slowed/Faerie Fire'd).

Tennis Boss:
* Boss sends a ball of energy towards a random point in X range that then moves back to the boss, damaging any units along the way in both directions. If a detector is brought in, it shows that the boss is throwing the energy ball to an invisible partner who sends it back before moving to another location. Killing the partner changes the boss' attack pattern: he still throws damaging energy balls in a line, but now they keep going (meaning a longer cooldown between attacks).
 
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